


The Cuckoo Conundrum

by lori (zakhad), zakhad



Series: Captain and Counselor, the revised versions [34]
Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-25 02:15:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22328302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zakhad/pseuds/lori, https://archiveofourown.org/users/zakhad/pseuds/zakhad
Summary: Captain Picard goes to the aid of an old friend, and his first officer is carrying on with the mission -- but it is never so straightforward as anyone expects.
Relationships: Jean-Luc Picard/Deanna Troi
Series: Captain and Counselor, the revised versions [34]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1222406
Kudos: 5





	The Cuckoo Conundrum

**Author's Note:**

> In the old series, this was called Omega Doorstop. The problem is that the omega particle is too problematic to use. There were other aspects of the story that don't suit -- the plot such as it was wandered around a lot when it could have been more straightforward. The characters will be the same, but the tone will shift somewhat and the events will have the same basic outcome, but serve larger plot arcs more. 
> 
> In the end Deanna will still figure out the problem with the ship, and Natalia will still have more insight into her captain. Guinan will return and the series will resume. The worldbuilding is more consistent with the revised series, and less cardboard backdrop.

Deanna Troi returned from the ready room and sat down in the middle of the bridge, to consider her current situation.

Throughout her long history of being on the bridge of the _Enterprise_ as a senior officer, she had observed other officers at work, in all kinds of situations. She had watched the first officer and captain face down other vessels at red alert, guide the ship through survey after maneuver after standard orbit -- polar orbits, geosynchronous orbits, geostationary orbits, ecliptic orbits, equatorial orbits…. High warp chases. Undercover operations. System surveys. Taking the ship into nebulas, or transwarp conduits, or spatial anomalies. Investigating a Tyken’s rift, a graviton ellipse, a Dyson sphere, the odd random void or quantum filament -- she couldn’t even remember all the spatial phenomena they’d encountered. 

This was, however, her first time in command of a mission -- yes, temporarily. Yes, the captain would be back before the conclusion of it. But. She was for all intents and purposes the one responsible for the flagship of the Federation, and any and all consequences of what might happen over the next few days would rest solidly on her shoulders. And that, as she well knew, could include any completely-unexpected, random catastrophe.

Her stomach was in knots if she permitted herself to remember all the things that _had actually happened_ to starships before. Let alone to the _Enterprise_ itself!

At the moment, the class 3 nebula in the Toman sector was the focus of their current mission. They were on the far boundary of the Federation, investigating reports of unidentified ships that a science vessel had encountered elsewhere in the sector. The admiral had been concerned that there were perhaps more former Maquis at large, or a new species making inroads into Federation space, and so recalling the _Hipparchus_ and sending the _Enterprise_ was her solution. An Intrepid class was versatile, but a Sovereign class was better able to defend itself. The nebula was an excellent candidate for hiding out from sensors; their warp speed survey of other areas of the sector had not located anything out of the ordinary. So they were taking their time to survey it. 

Their original assignment, the survey of the Briar Patch, had been reassigned to the _Venture_. Jean-Luc’s review of the data Starfleet provided on that region had caused concern, and Dr. Mengis had issued a recommendation against a vessel with pregnant crew patrolling the area. The _Enterprise_ currently had two pregnant officers, Deanna and Lieutenant Jesperson in engineering. The _Venture_ had none, at the moment. Thus, that vessel was being given modifications that would protect it somewhat from the dangerous features of the Briar Patch including supernova remnants, false vacuum fluctuations, and metaphasic radiation. Tom had called via subspace to chide them for dumping their mission on him, but Deanna had pointed out that really, they were exchanging it for a very similar mission, not abandoning it. And of course, Tom had been joking. As usual.

While the _Enterprise_ was en route to the Toman sector, another subspace communication had altered their plans. The captain had departed in a shuttle bound for a little world in the Sornas system, a sector and a half away. Telix was a long way from the core worlds of the Federation, and not even close to the _Enterprise_ ’s current location. But they had finally heard from Guinan, and Jean-Luc had gone to find her. The terse, too-short missive from her had been worrying. They had estimated a six day turnaround; he had taken one of the type 11 shuttles and Ensign Greenman as pilot, and did not anticipate encountering any complications. Finding their friend and returning should not be a complex task. 

However, that too was not guaranteed. 

It would be the first time Deanna was light years from her husband. And it was proving to be more difficult than she’d anticipated. She sighed and put a hand on the mound in her uniform; at six months going on seven, the pregnancy was past barely-showing and well into growing. It would be easy to blame the unsettled stomach on Yves, but the morning sickness had abated more than a month ago. And it didn’t explain the hollowness in her chest. 

“Finishing the fourth transit,” Carlisle said from ops. His hands moved across the console. “No unusual readings.”

“Adjusting our heading to begin the next sweep,” Thorson said from the helm. 

Deanna leaned back and watched the movement of the swirling crimson, yellow and orange gasses of the nebula as the ship turned slowly about. Their search pattern was carefully plotted to maximize efforts. Searching a nebula this large would take several weeks, even using warp travel to shorten the search. 

“Picking up something ahead -- it appears to be a subspace vacuole,” Carlisle said.

While she wasn’t completely certain about the details, Deanna knew it by name as one of many potential navigational hazards for starships. They were traveling at full impulse, putting all the sensors to good use combing this particular section of the nebula for the vessels reported, not warp speed. But she didn’t intend to take any chances.

“Keep us well clear of it. Mr. Carlisle, is it interfering with sensors?”

“There are disturbances in subspace that worsen the closer we are to it but we’re not there yet.” Ward paused, leaning forward a little. “Sir -- I’m picking up -- whoa!“

The ship shuddered around them, and the main viewscreen went dark.

Deanna sensed shock rippling throughout the bridge, as Carlisle raised his hands from his console and stared down at it. The main viewer flickered, then a view of the stars came back.

Rising from the command chair, Deanna looked around. Nothing seemed to be wrong now.

“Mr. Carlisle?”

“I don’t know -- the computer isn’t responding to anything.” He tapped controls, which appeared to be frozen. She’d assumed too soon… something was wrong after all.

_“Engineering to Bridge. Commander, the engines shut down and I couldn’t tell you why. And the computer’s not reacting predictably.”_

“We’re seeing that, Mr. LaForge.” It felt better that communications were not affected. “Mr. Thorson, report.”

“The ship is all stop -- from what I can tell. External sensors have stopped giving me data. Sorry, sir.” Thorson sounded a bit breathless; she could sense the rising anxiety from all over the ship, as people were no doubt trying to get the computer to behave normally. 

“ _That’s consistent with what I’m seeing. Internal sensors appear to be operational, and life support, communications, turbolifts and the other ship’s systems are all online, but the external sensors are down and the engines refuse to restart. I don’t see any malfunction anywhere. It’s like the computer just turned them off. And, it’s not responding to voice commands.”_

“We are getting incoming calls from all over the ship, from astrometrics and crew who were using the computer,” deLio said.

“Have you ever seen anything like this before, Commander LaForge?” Deanna asked. “Is there some subroutine that would cause this in some specific situation?”

_“Can’t say that I’ve ever seen anything like this. And I don’t know of any subroutine that might lock us out of external sensors.”_

Deanna stared at the main viewscreen wondering what it meant. She considered her options; there weren’t many. After a moment, she tapped her badge.

“Attention all crew. This is Commander Troi. We are experiencing difficulty with the computer -- please remain where you are, and report anything unusual to the bridge. Stand by for further orders. There is no immediate danger, please remain calm.”

After tapping her badge again to close the channel, she turned and looked up at deLio. “Yellow alert, until we know more about what’s going on. And I am sorry, Mr. deLio, that you will be fielding calls for a while. Mr. Carlisle -- you and Mr. LaForge have an hour to finish a survey of ship’s systems. Get teams to put eyes on the last upgrades of the ship, see if there is anything out of the ordinary that went unnoticed. Senior staff briefing in an hour.”

“Aye, sir,” Ward Carlisle said crisply as he stood up. His relief came down from a secondary station to take his place as he headed for the starboard lift. 

“deLio, do we have external communications?”

The L’norim tried and shook his head. “No, sir.”

Deanna pressed her lips together and returned to the command chair. She didn’t like this one bit. Cut off from Starfleet Command or other vessels, and the captain wasn’t there.

The knots in her stomach tightened. And now she was craving pickles again. 

Thorson pivoted his chair to face her, his freckled face flushed; he was upset, not just anxious as the other bridge crew had been. “Sir.”

“What is it, Ensign?”

“Are we….” The young blond paused, probably scrambling for words. He had been in one of the groups of cadets and retained because he showed some promise. At this point he’d been aboard for two months. “Are we under attack, somehow?”

“It’s too soon to draw conclusions, Ensign. We are investigating the matter.”

“But -- Commander, what are we going to do? If we can’t repair the computer?” The plaintive note wasn’t promising. 

“Ensign,” she said firmly, trying to chide and reassure at the same time. “You are at the conn. Yellow alert -- focus.”

It was enough to jar the ensign from his descent into panic. Swallowing, he turned his chair back and refocused on the panel before him. 

Deanna scanned, trying to sense any changes, perhaps any aliens in the vicinity of the ship -- first and foremost, she detected the usual, familiar minds of the crew. But there was a hint of something new. She didn’t think it was more than a single entity. It felt foreign to her, not human nor any other Federation species she’d met. But her fleeting impression faded, leaving her wondering if she’d sensed it at all. 

She watched crimson tendrils of helium, hydrogen and plasma slowly twist on the main viewer, wishing she could talk to the captain. Yves started to move, punching and kicking lightly against the uterine wall. 

_I know how you feel, little boy. We’ll be out of this situation as soon as possible._


End file.
